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Possible stupid question

As you can see I am a newbie so I give you one of many stupid questions to come. What exactly is this *nix thing that I keep seeing? I searched the forums but could find no definitive answer. I also Googled it but nothing. I'm thinking it is an AO thing. From what I can tell it refers to Unix but why refer to it this way?

\"I\'d like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve.\" -John Mayer

The real reason for using *nix was because AT&T copyrighted and used to own the name Unix. So to avoid any possibilities of paying into copyright and to seperate other *nixes from that of AT&T, the metacharacter * was added. As I was searching for more historical knowledge I found this. Open Group bought the term Unix:

Originally, the term ``Unix'' meant a particular product developed by AT&T. Today, the Open Group owns the Unix trademark, and it defines Unix as ``the worldwide Single UNIX Specification''.

Thanks for all the great replies. I am in the process of adding linux to my computer as a second OS which has Win2K for an OS now. It seems like a daunting task for a newbie so I hope you all don't mind if I periodically ask my dumb questions. I can see there is a lot of knowledge to benefit from here at AO and I thank you all in advance.

\"I\'d like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve.\" -John Mayer

I don't think one is better than the other. I -- personally -- think it's better to say that one serves a better purpose for what the individual wants to use it for. And what the individual is comfortable with.

Originally posted here by HurrayForSchool I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, but since were on the topic , why is *nix better than windows?

Trying to start a flame war?

I prefer linux/unix for a wide variety of reasons.
1) I like the control I can exhibit over how my OS behaves
2) I like the fact that I can go weeks without rebooting
3) The price is right
4) No blue screen of death
5) There are real tools (especially security related) available for just about anything you can imagine
6) You can do awesome things with it (relatively) simply, that you could never do with windows. For example, I built a bare bones Slackware box at work and gave it a public IP address. From home I connected to it using SSH then used lynx to download snort and snortsnarf. I then got apache up and running, and now have a web enabled IDS I can look at from right here. All while sitting in my living room drinking coffee after my kids had gone to bed rather than staying late at work.
7) very few viruses (virii???) and fewer pop-ups.
8)Hella fast when configured correctly. The machine I'm sitting at right now is a full year older than my wifes XP machine, both are connected to the KVM switch, both use the same internet connection. To prove to her that mine was better than hers, even though hers was newer, when we were checking to see if school was closed the other day I typed in the URL of the local newspaper in IE on her machine, switched to my machine, typed the URL on Opera, navigated through to the list of closed schools, then switched back to hers. Hers was still loading the home page......

The list goes on and on

Why I still need windows.....to some extent
1)Nothing compares to Visio in the linux world.
2)Crappy NetWare client
3)Games for my kids

There are pros and cons to both. It is a matter of personel preference. No one OS is right for everyone. Hell, there are a lot of good things to be said for Mac's. Just like not using a screwdriver to pound a nail in, your OS should be looked at as a tool as well. Always use the right tool for the job.

I learned from here that the only stupid question you can ask is one you hadn't first tried to resolve on your own-I didn't know how to change the settings on my default image viewer and (it was opera) when I deleted that program I spent an hour or two trying to figure it out before I asked in a post, recieved the solution in 2 minutes flat. Enjoy your stay there are some incredible individuals here

Just wanted to mention I did some slightly more scientific testing of the speed of the tcp/ip stack between my linux machine and my wifes XP machine. As I mentioned before, both share an internet connection and are attached to a KVM switch. I used the speed test from the bandwidth place for the test. First, I brought up the site on both machines and entered all the necessary info. I was at the point where all I had to do was click the little button that says "test" to begin. Here are the pertinent specs of the two machines.

Knowing that bandwidth and bandwidth tests can fluctuate wildly every few seconds, I ran eight tests on each machine. First I did mine, hit the button on the kvm, then hers. My results were anywhere from 1.5mb throughput to 2.8mb! Hers were 1.0 to 1.1mb. All but two of her tests were 1.1 megs.